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 Improve
Your Garden Soil with Fall Leaves and Landscape Trimmings
By Melinda Myers
[September 27, 2025]
Fall is a great time to improve your soil for next
year’s garden. Many of the resources needed are readily available
and many are free at this time of the year.
Start by putting fall leaves to work in the garden. Use your mower
with the bag attached to shred and collect fall leaves. Work them
into the top 8 to 12” of soil. They break down over winter, adding
organic matter and nutrients to the soil before you begin planting
in the spring. |
Fall leaves are also a great resource for those of you minimizing
soil disruption with no till, also known as no dig, soil care.
Spread several inches of the leaves over the soil surface. The leaf
mulch protects the soil in new and vacant gardens from erosion and
compaction over the winter. They keep the soil a bit cooler in the
spring so you may need to adjust your planting times.
Cover bare soil in perennial gardens and mixed borders with fall
leaves. They are a great mulch, suppressing weeds, conserving
moisture and improving the soil as they decompose. A layer of leaves
insulates the soil, helping insects and other wildlife that
overwinter underground. Plus, they are free.
Incorporating two to four inches of compost or other organic matter
into the top 8 to 12 inches of soil is another option. Organic
matter adds nutrients but also improves drainage and aeration in
heavy soil and increases water- and nutrient-holding capacity in
fast draining soils.
Adding compost also builds the soil ecosystem. It increases the
number and activity of beneficial soil organisms such as good
bacteria, fungi, microorganisms and insects. Healthy soil grows
healthier plants more resistant to pests and environmental stresses.
Another no till method uses a five-inch layer of compost on top of
non-shiny cardboard, covering the soil surface. The cardboard helps
suppress the weeds and the compost provides the growing medium for
seeds and transplants. The compost is replenished yearly, and the
cardboard eventually breaks down, adding organic matter to the soil.
Convert landscape and garden trimmings, fall leaves and compost into
a rich planting medium with lasagna gardening. This system employs
composting methodology to build soil in free-standing or contained
raised beds.
Start your lasagna garden by measuring and marking the layout of
your garden bed. Cut any grass and weeds in this area very short and
cover with moist newspaper or cardboard. This smothers any existing
grass and weeds.
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Next, add a two- to three-inch layer of peat moss or compost. Top
this with four to eight inches of plant debris such as leaves,
plant-based kitchen scraps, herbicide-free grass clippings, straw or
similar materials. Sprinkle a bit of low nitrogen fertilizer over
this layer. Cover with an inch of compost. Repeat the layers, just
like making lasagna, until your garden is 18 to 24 inches high.
Hugelkultur, or mound gardens take this one step further. The bottom
layer is made of logs, branches and fall leaves. Do not include
black walnut tree trimmings that are toxic to many plants or those
of cedar and black locust that are very slow to decompose. The
rotting logs and branches absorb water, making it available to the
plants in the garden. As the tree trimmings decompose, they add
organic matter and nutrients to the soil. Then top this with a
lasagna garden.
The lasagna and Hugelkultur beds gradually settle but the benefits
remain. Continue to build additional lasagna layers every few years
on top of established beds as needed.
Select a method that best fits your gardening style. Investing time
in building healthy soil reaps years of benefits.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books,
including the Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small
Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything”
instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s
Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and
contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned
by Summit for her expertise to write this article. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.
[Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com] |
